


Drawing The Curtain

by Eternal_Love_Song



Series: ASBLS Expanded Universe [4]
Category: Original Work, 僕のヒーローアカデミア | Boku no Hero Academia | My Hero Academia
Genre: Betrayal, Break Up, Developing Relationship, Established Relationship, F/M, Introspection, OT3
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-06-05
Updated: 2020-06-06
Packaged: 2021-03-04 05:53:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,854
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24558736
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Eternal_Love_Song/pseuds/Eternal_Love_Song
Summary: It was a bandage on a broken limb, but Mana didn't want to let go.
Relationships: Original Female Character/Original Male Character
Series: ASBLS Expanded Universe [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1754704
Kudos: 1





	1. Opening Act

**Author's Note:**

  * For [HeavenlyDIO](https://archiveofourown.org/users/HeavenlyDIO/gifts).
  * Inspired by [A Slightly Bitter Love Story](https://archiveofourown.org/works/19450927) by [HeavenlyDIO](https://archiveofourown.org/users/HeavenlyDIO/pseuds/HeavenlyDIO). 



> Characters are based on HeavenlyDIO's OC's. Story linked above.

Shogeki was a miserable boy. He was very handsome and powerful, hilarious grumpy, and he had a list of things that he hated that was miles long. He constantly swore, insulted others, and never wanted to get involved in things that he thought were troublesome. He was also one of the most dutiful people that Mana had ever met, was adorably old fashioned, and perhaps most importantly of all, he didn't hate her. She was a ray of sunshine so bright that he sometimes joked that he had to cover his eyes whenever she came around, she was friendly and smiling with everyone, and had a fair few quirks even compared to her classmates.

And yet, Shogeki didn't hate her. 

It was something that Mana held very close to her heart. The knowledge that of all their classmates, she had managed to be someone that he wanted to be bothered with. It was exciting! Mana had never been one to hold back, had always been the person to try and cheer up others, and this was no exception. She went all out when it came to Shogeki.

That turned out not to be the best decision when a few months later he spent more time tiredly sighing at her than smiling. "Sakana, do you have to do that all the time?"

"Do what?" she asked him.

Shogeki frowned as he stared at her and she could practically see his thoughts as they crossed his face. He looked at her make up, her smile, her bright colors, and he only turned away from her to sigh again. "Never mind."

It stung more than she wanted to admit. It had been a point of pride to her, being on the small list of things that he actually enjoyed. Looking at him now, she could see that she was slowly slipping from that list. 

Mana wasn't the type to give up easily. She knew how easily he could be overwhelmed by things, so she gave him a little more space. She knew that he enjoyed her strength, so they spared more often. It was a bandage on a broken limb, but Mana didn't want to let go.

"Shogeki, you need something to get you out of your funk," she told him.

He gave her a wry smile as he replied. "Isn't that what I have you for?"

It hurt because he meant it. Because it was supposed to be true and very quickly seemed to be less and less so. She reached out to run her fingers through his hair and he let her. It was one of the reasons she didn't want to give this up, he still let her do so many things no one else was allowed to do. He still smiled at her. She was still one of the best people to help him deal with himself, even if thus far she'd only had luck doing so by force.

And then Toga came into their lives. 

Shogeki grudgingly accepted her, kicking and complaining all the while. He was even more tired than usual, even more grumpy, and more of their together became sparring and stress relief than ever before. It made her sad to see him running himself ragged, disappointed her to lose so much of their already precious time together. It was an entirely different emotion to see how much Toga adored him from the start. Something small and uneasy that churned away in the back of her mind.

The next time they were alone, she refused to spare with him. Instead, she looped herself around his body until he couldn't move, let him struggle until he was too exhausted to fight her, and peppered him with kisses and affection until he was so angry and frustrated it came out as tears. Until he was tired enough that he slept and she got to hold him for a few hours.

"That was a dirty trick," he told her later.

"You needed it," she answered. She didn't tell him that she needed it too, needed to hold him and comfort him, even though he hated it. 

It was worth it when she saw him trying to hide his blush. "Don't pull that shit again," he told her.

She most certainly would.

Toga turned out to be a sweet girl, underneath all the murdering violence. She was bright and chipper, completely adorable, and very concerned over "Aki-chan." They got along like balloons at a children's birthday party; explosions of excitement and giggling and sometimes things popped, usually the vein at Shogeki's temple. But despite everything, Mana was still someone who he did not hate and she always found a way to soothe him again. 

Strangely enough, the addition of Toga... helped. He had something else to focus on, someone else to be annoyed and concerned with, and their were new ways for them to interact to deal with that. The idea came to her slowly as she watched them, as the small thing in the back of her mind grew, and the impulse to... cling started to emerge. 

Mana had never thought of herself as clingy before. Shogeki sometimes called her that, but he called her all sorts of things that he didn't mean and could be a hypocrite besides, so that didn't matter much. She didn't think there was anything wrong with wanting to grab onto his arm when they went out, wrapping herself around him to help him vent out his energy and calm down, cuddling with him even though he pretended to hate it. And the way that he sometimes relaxed into her arms, the way he closed his eyes and let out deep breaths, that told her more than his words ever could. Shogeki was a liar, to himself and everyone else, but he couldn't hide the truth from her. And the truth was that there was something in his eyes when he looked at Toga, something that made her very afraid.

"Shogeki... can I ask you something?" It was rare for her to hesitate, to not just come right out and say whatever she wanted. He picked up on that right away. He shoved Toga away from him where she had been trying to wrap herself around his arm, something that Toga did a lot that he had increasingly begun to ignore and meet with less and less annoyance, and gestured to Hamada to watch her. They stepped into another room where there would be fewer eyes and ears on them.

"What is it?" He asked.

It felt silly to ask him a question that she knew he hadn't thought of at all, but she had to put the idea in his his head if she was ever going to get the truth out of him. She'd never felt so silly fidgeting in front of him before. "How do you feel about Toga?"

"What the hell kind of question is that?" He asked with a grimace. "How do you think I'd feel about that clingy bitch?"

"Do you really want to know what I think?" She asked him.

"I wouldn't have fucking asked if I didn't."

She sighed. "You think that you dislike her, but you don't." He growled at her, but she placed her hands on his shoulders to keep him in place and listening to her. "I think... does she remind you of me?"

He blinked at her, stiffened in her hold and tried not to show it, looked away from her to hide his expression as he puzzled over her words. She wouldn't let him pull away so easily and shifted forward to embrace him. "You're nothing alike," he said forcefully.

She almost told him that he didn't have to lie to her, but she knew that he wasn't. At least, he wasn't trying to. Shogeki always lied to himself first. She smiled at him, trying to convey her understanding. "You're trying to redeem her, right? It's okay to see her as a person and not an assignment."

"It's not okay!" He balled his hands into fist and glared at nothing. "What if it doesn't work?" He looked at her then. "I already hate almost everyone here. You want me to get attached some psycho that tries to stab me in the face every chance she gets?"

"I'm not saying that at all." She sighed and stepped close enough to place her head on his chest. "Do you think it'll work if you keep treating her like a criminal?"

"She is a fucking criminal!"

"And do you think that treating her like one will help?" She asked again.

He was silent as he tried to reign in his anger and she remained close to him. Eventually, he let out a deep breath and wrapped his arms around her. "I'm going to regret this."

"It's okay to regret something as long as you try your hardest, right?" She said softly.


	2. Stage Exit

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Shogeki should have known better than to fall in love.

He was bleeding. It was the one thing on this assignment that he wasn't supposed to do. Information, redemption, containment, all that had been optional when it came down to it. It was preferred that his assignment be redeemed, give information, survive, but none of that had been required. Keeping his blood safe, that had been a mandate, and he failed.

Shogeki was used to failure. Life had been making him its bitch for as long as he could remember. He was used to being chewing up, spit out, and picked out of it's teeth like yesterday's leftovers. He didn't think it had ever felt this bad before. He had been through so much, had put himself through so much --being punched bloody, pushing his body past his own breaking point, losing a fucking eye, and this still found a way to hit him hard in someplace new.

For a while he just felt numb. The sweat on his forehead, the blood on his cheek, the pain in his limbs and electricity in his veins, it all felt too distant. The dirty dilapidation of the alley around him was like a set piece, a cardboard cut out set up so that they could act out their emotions without feeling them. 

Shogeki always felt angry. It was a near constant hum in his blood, like feeling the buzz of his quirk or seeing Sakana smiling. It was ever present, unchanging. Ten minutes ago he had been brimming with tension! He had been charged, fuming, ready to scream at the top of his lungs. And he had! Now he felt nothing. Less than nothing.

Now, Sakana wasn't smiling. 

She was crying. Loud, messy sobs bursting from her body, and he hated it. He hated hearing the sound of it echo off the alley walls. He hated the sight on her on her knees and folded in on herself. He hated that he still felt numb instead of angry, that he fel rooted to his spot instead of inclined to help her. He couldn't remember ever seeing her in anything less than perfectly immaculate make-up and face paint. She took that shit more seriously than anything else she did (except for their relationship, he had seen her putting more than everything she had into that, and couldn't bring himself to even face that thought considering what had happened) and seeing her now was almost surreal in the worst of ways. He had only ever seen her with perfect make up or nothing at all, no in between. Now it was smeared and running, both with tears and from her putting her hands to her face to try and stop them.

Ten minutes ago she had been smiling. It had been a friendly smile, it was a battle ready expression that he had seen her wear in only a few, very tense situations, but it was a smile. It was better than this.

He had realized how much he had gotten used to seeing her smiling. He didn't know that it would hurt so much to see her stop. 

And he knew, he just fucking knew, that if he stopped feeling numb he would be on the ground joining her. It would only take the smallest push to break him. And he stood there, teetering on the edge and unsure of which way he would fall.

"Akira." He closed his eyes, fighting the instinctual flinch as he heard another voice echo hers, too cheerful and too playful and calling him "Aki-chan" instead. There was so much raw fucking pain in her voice that it rocked him to the core. She said it again, like taking a pickax to his armor and chipping away at him. He closed his fist, allowing his tension to pool there as he opened his eyes.

Fuck, she was a mess. Her hair was falling haphazardly from the bun she kept it in. One of her contacts had fallen out, leaving her looking at him with to vastly different eye colors. She had her arms wrapped around herself twice over, clutching and clinging to herself as if she was her only lifeline. And maybe she was, since he was doing fuck all to help her right now. She hadn't even stood up, instead she was practically crawling on her knees as she came toward him. 

He hated the sight of it with a sudden passion that he couldn't contain. He stepped back from her approaching form, the anger that was missing earlier coming back to him. He slammed his hand against the wall, releasing his pent up energy and electricity both, but they had no where to go. 

"Don't fucking touch me!" He screamed. She didn't listen, she never did. He tried to back further away but her arms just wound around him anyway. He found himself falling to his knees, closing his eyes so that he wouldn't have to see her pain close up. "Get off of me!"

"Akira." She pressed her face into his shirt. He felt his body go still and it had nothing to do with her arms wrapped so tightly around him. "Please... tell me this isn't... I-I'm dreaming, right? We fell asleep next to Osore and this is... just because of her quirk, right?"

She was begging. God, she never begged him. Even when she said please, it always sounded more like manipulation than a plea. Like she was teasing, indulging, mocking him. Now it sounded liked breaking.

And what the fuck was he supposed to do? Lie? Fuck that! And fuck her for asking him! 

Shogeki slammed his fist on the ground, her hold loosening to allow him the room to move, as he screamed out what had been echoing in his mind the entire time. "She's gone! The bitch fucking left us!"

"Aki-"

"She was fucking playing us the whole goddamn time!"

Sakana was shaking her head frantically. "No!"

"And now she's back with her fucking league buddies, with our blood, all because we were so fucking idiotic as to fall in goddamn fucking love--" His voice broke on the last word, and so did he. A hot trail of tears running down his face as his anger surged and churned within him. Unfortunately it came with a fresh wave of guilt, and misery, and helplessness, and worst of all, longing. He fucking missed her! She'd betrayed him, and worse had been gone less than ten minutes, and he fucking wanted her back!

"Don't say that!" Sakana objected loudly. "She loved us, confided in us--"

"What does any of that shit matter now?" He asked. "She still fucking left us. It didn't stop her from betraying us, did it? Her love didn't mean shit!"

At some point she had stopped crying and started glaring. If he hadn't been so angry, maybe it would have been a relief. As it was, all it did was make him glare back. "So is that it? You're giving up on her?"

"There's nothing to give up on!" He exclaimed. He couldn't tell whether was more frustrated or hurt, and he refused to put any thought into trying to distinguish one from the other. "She left us! She's fucking gone! She gave up on us and fuck her for--" 

For hurting him, but the words got stuck in his throat. For hurting Sakana. For making them trust her and want her and... love her...

He fucking knew better! He knew his family was cursed, so why the hell had he... It should have been enough to have one crazy bitch in his life. At least with Sakana, he had known what to expect. She was a hero, she was a fucking clown, all of her annoying ass habits were right there out in the open. Why did he ever think it was okay to fall for a psycho bitch like Toga anyway?

All at once the tension left his body and all he felt was tired, drained. He sagged in her hold and her arms firmed up around him as if she could hold him up. "I'm not dealing with this," He told her, exhaustion in his voice. "Let's just... let's just fucking go."


End file.
